Awareness and attitudes towards total cardiovascular disease risk assessment in clinical practice among physicians in Southern Nigeria

Authors

  • Sandra Ofori University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
  • Chinyere Wachukwu University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60787/tnhj.v16i1.191

Keywords:

Risk assessment, cardiovascular disease, and primary prevention

Abstract

Objective:  This study set out to determine the awareness, use, and attitudes regarding total CVD risk assessment in clinical practice among physicians in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

Methods: a cross-sectional survey of 150 physicians in government hospitals and private practices in Port Harcourt city. The characteristics of ‘users’ versus ‘non-users’ of CVD risk assessment were compared with the Chi-Square test of significance.

Results: 106 physicians completed the questionnaires. 74 (69.8%) reported awareness of tools available to assess total CVD risk. Among those aware, 87.1% agreed that CVD risk assessment is useful, 81% agreed it improves patient care, 74.3% agreed it leads to better decisions about recommending preventive therapies and 60% agreed that it increased the likelihood that they would recommend risk-reducing therapies to high-risk patients. However, 62.9% of these physicians felt it was time-wasting to use and only 21 (28.4%) actually use CVD risk assessment regularly in practice. The most commonly reported barrier was unfamiliarity with how to use risk estimation tools (52.8%). Majority who use it do so to guide preventive therapy. Female sex and the use of an Internet-enabled smartphone were associated with increased odds of being a ‘user’ of risk estimation tools (odds ratios 4.8, CI 1.4-16.9; and 5.9, CI 1.7-20.0 respectively).

Conclusion: Utilization of risk assessments in clinical practice is low. A major barrier was non-familiarity with how to use the tools. Continuous medical education and wider use of smartphone technology may represent health system approaches to tackling this issue.

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Author Biographies

Sandra Ofori, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Lecturer and Consultant Physician in Internal Medicine and Cardiology, College of Health Sciences and Teaching Hospital, University of Port Harcourt

 

Chinyere Wachukwu, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Lecturer and Consultant Physician in Internal Medicine and Nephrology, College of Health Sciences and Teaching Hospital, University of Port Harcourt

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Published

2016-10-24

How to Cite

Ofori, S., & Wachukwu, C. (2016). Awareness and attitudes towards total cardiovascular disease risk assessment in clinical practice among physicians in Southern Nigeria. The Nigerian Health Journal, 16(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.60787/tnhj.v16i1.191
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